Two Suns Dawn
by onerustybucket
Summary: The job was pretty straight-forward: kill the gang, destroy the cargo. Anna opted to throw the second one out the window. It wasn't her fault - the cargo was just so... distracting. (Elsanna Star Wars AU, with bountyhunter!Anna and slave!Elsa)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello! This is my first fanfiction ever (not counting the ones I started that still remain unfinished and unpublished to this day), so please be really harsh with me. I'd like to improve my writing quality as much as I can.**

 **This idea actually sprouted from when I was browsing through the Elsanna subreddit. There were two posts there, one with slave!Anna & slave!Elsa, and one with HanSolo!Anna and slave!Elsa. Yeah, the pictures were pretty...evocative. Then an idea entered my mind: what if there was a fanfic like that, a Star Wars AU fanfic where Anna is a bounty hunter and Elsa is a slave dressed in the famous golden bikini.**

 **The next day, I accidentally this.**

 **It's really hard, researching on all the stuff to make sure nothing I write contradicts canon. Hopefully it doesn't, but I probably did, so if there is, sorry in advance.**

 **I'll try to update this as much as I can, but school is really busy, and I'm writing this by the seat of my pants.**

 **Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

If Anna had any other choice, she would avoid Tattooine like the plague.

But she had no choice, since most of her employers and contractors made their residence here, but it didn't mean she had to like it. The desert planet's heat was intense beyond belief, and she would often end up dripping with sweat. Oftentimes while simply walking down the Old District of Mos Eisley, she could see the heat refracting off the endless stretch of sand dunes for miles and miles, which only served to hammer the fact further in.

Sure, there was the occasional job that sent her off-planet to some distant floating ball in space, but they were few and far in-between, since most of her clients rarely operated beyond Tattooine, so she was more often than not stuck here.

She had to admit that the unforgiving little ball of sand had its fair share of sights and wonders, like right now, for instance. She sat on top of a rock, admiring the deep orange sunlight of the two stars as it shone across the landscape dotted with stretching stone cliff sides and sand dunes.

 _Yeah,_ Anna mused. _This place does have its moments._

The wind blew softly, cooling the air to a comfortable temperature. The sunlight was slowly fading away, giving way to the vibrant nightlife of the Armpit of the Galaxy in the distance. Buildings began to light up, in anticipation of the binary sunset's end.

Anna stood up and began walking towards the ship behind her, a YV-560 light freighter.

It was ugly and more than a bit worn, but it was as close she was going to get to an actual home. It held a special place in her heart - she had finally earned enough money from jobs to get her own ship, and this was the one thing that caught her eye in the spaceport.

The toydarian who was selling the ship was rather dimwitted, and was selling it at a relatively dirt-cheap price compared to the rest of the ships on offer (it would still drain her savings dry, but not as much). Initially, she was not impressed with the freighter at all. The panelling was rusty and falling apart, and the on-board systems and engines needed a major re-haul and a lot of time in order to get airborne, time she didn't want to spend.

Then she noticed that the hyperdrive was covered in dust, seemingly untouched by the merchant. Upon closer examination, she realized she was looking at a Class 1 hyperdrive, and that the toydarian didn't bother to take a closer look at the ship.

She wasted no time in taking the supposed piece of junk off his hands.

Ever since, she'd been fixing it up bit-by-bit, with a little help. The rusty panelling was mostly fixed up, and the rust bucket was now space-worthy. There was even a functioning air-conditioning unit now. She didn't have to spend all her time outside in the sweltering heat that was daytime in Tattooine.

As she walked up the ramp, she heard the familiar sound of wheels whirring and beeping.

"Sven?" Anna called out.

A T7 astromech droid came from the side of the entrance, beeping at Anna.

She smiled. The trusty little droid was a gift from one of her employers after she rescued him from an arms deal gone wrong. It was a little dated, sure, but it had done more than enough for her over the years, fixing up the ship and bringing it up to snuff.

It had a nickname before she even got it. His former owner had the droid for a long time, so long in fact, that he'd gotten around to naming it Sven, short for Seven.

"Hey there, little guy," Anna said, kneeling down in front of it. "What do you have for me?"

A set of sounds emanated from Sven. Anna raised her eyebrow.

"What does Kristoff need me for?"

The astromech beeped in nonchalance. A tool extended from its body and began projecting a hologram.

The hologram took form, showing a tall and bulky man with blonde hair. "Hey, Anna. How's Sven doing?"

"Kristoff?" Anna said, confused. "He's doing well enough. We actually managed to fix up the targeting systems today!"

Her brow furrowed, remembering something. "What's this all about? It's almost night, and you know this is supposed to be my off-day."

"Yeah, I know," Kristoff said sheepishly. "But this is really important for me, and I figured you'd be more inclined to take this job than anyone else."

"How so?"

"Remember the gang that almost killed me at that arms deal?"

"Of course," Anna replied. The Dar Bonfath gang was an up-and-coming group. They quickly earned a reputation of operating under a code of maximum brutality. Tales of freighters being boarded and abandoned, only for to be found with their cargo gone and their crew gutted dead, often times in multiple pieces strewn all over the cabins, quickly circulated around the rumor mill.

Personally, Anna despised types like them. It was a bit hypocritical of her, given her line of work, but she always made it a point to leave any innocent being uninvolved and unharmed, unlike them, who made it a point to do the total opposite.

"Well, I found one of the guys who tried to kill me. Meet me at the usual place if you're interested." The hologram flickered out, fading away.

Anna stood up at the base of the ramp, looking back and forth between the inside of her ship and the outside.

"Ugh," Anna groaned, walking towards the armory. "Alright. I'll bite."

* * *

The Mos Eisley Spaceport was known for many things, being dirty, absolutely corrupt, and riddled with crime were just a few things. Another thing it was known for was the immense variety of its night life. Cantinas and casinos lined the sides of the roads, and as a result the port was crowded even at night.

This made it easy for Anna, who was dressed in a worn second-hand RD-14B stealth armor set and armed to the teeth, to look inconspicuous. After all, no one would pay attention to a bounty hunter in a sea of smugglers, slavers, and other bounty hunters.

It was a thought that left a bitter taste in her mouth, the fact that she could walk among a crowd of the most despicable people in the galaxy and blend in. In a sense, she belonged here, in this hive of scum and villainy.

She looked the part, at the very least. The armor, despite it being old and used and lacking the helmet, still looked intimidating with its scratched armor plating and its knee-length waist cape billowing behind her. The weapons on her body only added to the aesthetic, like three Class-A thermal detonators on her belt, and the S-5 heavy blaster pistol strapped to her thigh. Sure, it was missing the second scope on the side, but it still had the dart launcher - more importantly, it still worked, and it worked well.

The same could be said for the medium-sized vibroblade sheathed horizontally at the back of her waist. She'd gotten it on one of her first bounties, a sort-of parting gift from the man she shot dead. It was sharp, and incredibly helpful on the jobs where a loud, bright blaster wasn't suited for the task.

The one thing that made her look a bit less intimidating that she aimed for was the slugthrower at her back, a Tof Soren hunting rifle. Even the extended barrel and handguard she added to the gun wasn't enough to shake off its 'primitiveness'. Anna never paid any mind to that. It was the best gun to use at a distance - where a blaster rifle, with its glowing projectile and distinguishable sound, would just paint a huge target on her, the slugthrower would conceal her position as she picked the off one-by-one.

An odd thing Anna noted when she used the rifle, though, was her uncanny ability with it. A blaster was easy to use - the blast traveled straight, and it always hit what it was pointed at. The slugthrower, however, fired projectiles, and those projectiles were affected by gravity, getting slower and hitting lower than where it was aimed at the farther it went. It was of much surprise then, when she noticed that she'd hit her target more often than not, with barely any experience.

She felt as if some unseen force guided her shots.

Before she could continue that line of thought, she reached her destination. It was a cantina that she and Kristoff often met in, called Shalo's. It looked the same as any other bar looked, with a bright, vibrant sign betraying its the dark, chaotic interior.

She made her way inside. It was crowded. People from all walks of life and all forms of species were packed into virtually every inch of the tavern. Squeezing through the veritable crowd of sentients, she made it to Kristoff's usual booth, with the aforementioned man already sitting, patiently nursing a half-empty glass of Jawa beer.

"Are you sure you don't want to change meeting places?" Anna called out towards Kristoff over the sounds of sentients chatting in different languages and loud music blaring over the entire room, moving to take a seat opposite of him. "It's starting to get really crowded in here."

"Really? I don't think it's that crowded," Kristoff said, looking around and finding nothing unusual about the massive crowd?

Her brows raised at that remark. "Kristoff, look at this place. All the stools are taken and all the booths are full. I had to go through so many crowds just to get here. Just because you're used to having eight siblings around doesn't mean everyone else is."

"Anna-"

"If this is anything like how it was at your home, then wow, I do not know how you survived that." She paused. "By the way, have you given them a call? You really should - they're all so adorable."

"Anna, listen-"

"I really wish I had siblings, or a family for that matter. It sucks growing up as an orphan, you know. It's a wonder I didn't get snatched up by wandering slavers or get killed while I was-"

"Anna!" Kristoff cried out. "You're rambling again."

Anna stopped, realizing her mistake. "Oops, sorry. Anyway, what's going on?"

The smuggler sighed. "Okay, so I managed to find info on one of the guys, specifically the Chistori."

This was news. They weren't able to make any breakthroughs in trying to find who exactly were the ones to double-cross him. "Uh huh, so what did you dig up on him?" Anna asked, mouthing an off-hand thank you to the waitress who brought a glass of water.

Kristoff pulled out a holoprojector and placed it on the table. It activated, showing a scarred Chistori male. "His name is Nassed. Turns out he's actually one of the ranking lieutenants in the Dar Bonfath. What he was doing at an arms deal, I do not know."

"But you found out something important."

"Yes," Kristoff affirmed, nodding. "Rumors are going around that the Dar are going to hold an auction in an undisclosed location. It's probably just all stuff they raided from freighters, but this is the first time they're doing something like this, so I'm assuming they're going to want to make sure that this goes as smoothly as possible."

"So you want me to follow Nassed to the auction."

"Yeah, and if my intel is correct…"

Anna caught on. "Then he'll lead me straight to the rest of the gang."

"Bingo."

Anna leaned back, reclining onto the couch. On one hand, Kristoff has the chance to get back at the ones who double-crossed him. On the other, however...

"Well, this sounds nice and all, but it's awfully risky," Anna pointed out, taking a sip from the cup of water. "I mean, the entire gang? That's a death wish. Not to mention who else is going to be there at the auction packing heat."

"Yeah, that's actually why I'm asking you."

"Me? Why?"

"Well," Kristoff began, taking a gulp from the glass of beer. "It's a suicide mission. so one else is accepting the job, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I was hoping you'd take up the job."

"It's still suicide."

"Please?" He pleaded. "C'mon, you saved Sven and I that day. You against eight of them and you came out victorious. You're like a one-woman army, I have faith you can do it."

Anna sighed. There was no way he was going to back off. "How much?"

"The info on Nassed wasn't cheap. 25,000."

"50,000."

"30,000."

"40,000. Take it or leave it."

"Ugh," Kristoff groaned. "Fine. I'll wire the payment when you complete the job."

"If I complete the job," Anna pointed out. "Most likely, I'm going to die. Where's Nassed?"

"Right over there." He pointed towards the opposite end of the cantina.

"Kristoff?"

"Yes?"

"Is this why you wanted us to meet here?"

"Yeah. I already slipped him a homing beacon-ow."

"At least tell me when my mark is in the same bar as we are!" Anna scolded. Kristoff rubbed the spot on his head where she had hit him. "We were talking about taking him and the rest of his gang out three booths away from him!"

The blonde held both of his palms out, hushing Anna. "Quiet. He didn't hear us, and if you yell out like that again that won't be for long."

Anna raised her hands up in exasperation. "I'm going. You can take Sven and the blaster rifle back if I die."

Before she dove back into the crown, she heard Kristoff call out after her. "Anna?"

She looked back. "Yeah?"

For a moment, she heard nothing but silence in the noisy bar, until Kristoff spoke. "Please don't die."

"...I'll try," Anna said, before disappearing into the crowd.

* * *

It was later into the night.

Anna stared at the entrance from the alley across, watching for any sign of the Chistori leaving the place. It had been half an hour by now. Shalo's crowd didn't thin out at all. Equal amounts of shady caricatures poured in and out of the cantina.

Just a few minutes later, she spotted Nassed exiting. It was time. Anna pulled up her hood, covered her face with the scarf, and began to tail him.

He was cautious and more than a bit tricky. There hadn't been any indication that he knew he was being followed, but it didn't matter because he was paranoid. Rightfully so, given that Anna had been able to keep up with his pace regardless of which alley he took a sudden turn into, or which crowds he merged with.

Anna knew Mos Eisley well, almost like the back of her hand. After all, she did grow up here, and she had plenty of time to wander around the streets of the port, trying to find someplace to hole up and sleep through the night.

His path led him to the docking bays. Anna got worried. If Kristoff's intel was off and the auction was off-world, then the entire thing would get a lot complicated.

The scarred Chistori walked into a bay. Anna cursed under her breath. She walked into an empty alleyway adjacent to the bay. After looking around and seeing no one, she drew her blaster, fired the dart-launcher, and ascended up the cable.

The sounds of engines powering up prompted her to speed things up. She scaled the ledge and ran, jumping over the gap between the docking bays, just in time to see a spacecraft ascend from the pit right in front of her. The wind blew hard, and Anna had to block out the gusts with her hand to prevent her covered face from being revealed.

Luckily, the cockpit was facing away from her, which quickly turned into a moot point has it surged forward, flying away from Mos Eisley towards the outskirts of the spaceport, no doubt heading far away.

"Well, that's just Bantha piss!" Anna swore, staring at the quickly shrinking silhouette of the ship as it flew off.

At least it's not going off-world, Anna thought, finding the silver lining. With any luck, I can track them down using the homing beacon.

There was one problem. She didn't have a speeder.

Anna huffed, jumping down from the roof and making a beeline for a speeder rental.

* * *

Oaken was a nice guy. He was huge and built like a Wookie, sure, but he was fair in his pricing, pleasant to customers and, more importantly, didn't ask questions.

So when Anna walked up to him, dressed in armor and armed with weapons, asking to rent a speeder bike, she simply got one.

And so Anna traversed the Dune Sea on an LC-4, heading where the homing beacon was. It was an old speeder bike model, dating back to when the Sith Empire still existed, but it was still fast enough. Even more fortunately, it had an on-board transceiver, allowing her to track Nassed's location.

 _Kristoff had a transceiver, right?_ Anna wondered. _He's probably gonna be tracking the job constantly._

The blonde man was an unusual smuggler. Unlike others in his line of work, who usually took a hands-on approach, Kristoff was more of a behind-the-scenes kind, working through proxies and stand-ins to fulfill jobs. It wasn't because he wasn't capable in a fight, oh no - he was more than capable, but the deal with the Bonfath was more than enough to turn him away from that approach.

If he was tracking Nassed, he'd also be tracking her along with him, observing for any anomalies.

It had been an hour and a half, and Anna was getting close to where the beacon had stopped. As she came closer and closer, the sights of massive dunes of sand were slowly being replaced with the sights of rocky cliffs and canyons. The landscape was rough and elevated, which gave her an idea on how to approach the situation.

The name of the game was surprise. She was just one bounty hunter, and one against an entire gang, not to mention who else would be there, was suicide. She was better off sneaking around, which was what she was going to do.

Best way to take out the gang was to do it all in one fell swoop. She'd plant thermal detonators on whatever cargo that the Bonfath deemed worth enough to auction off, as well as different points around the area. The resulting series of explosions would hopefully cause enough confusion to allow her to pick off the gang one-by-one with her slugthrower.

Hopefully it would actually go according to plan, Anna wished. When man has a plan…

She was two kilometers away from the beacon, in the middle of a valley path that only went deeper. Anna powered down the bike, parking in a nearby crevice and making her way to the auction on foot.

Anna scaled rock cliffs and trudged over the rocks on her way up to higher ground. A sudden blaring sound and strong gusts of wind caused her to look up at the cause, and she saw another light cruiser heading towards the location, quickly slowing down and descending, disappearing into the valley and landing somewhere out of sight.

 _Double time it, Anna,_ the young bounty hunter thought to herself, picking up the pace and reaching the edge of the cliff.

She was greeted by the sight of a massive makeshift marketplace, with ramshackled stands dotting the entire vista. Ships were docked all around, scattered as they surrounded the place. There were multiple tents around - presumably they held the stocks of all those who aimed to sell their wares here. The setup formed a half-circle layout, which surrounded what appeared to be an old Trade Federation superfreighter.

Anna was surprised. They must've been having a pretty good raiding run if they were able to nab a ship like that.

It was a bustling marketplace already - crowds flowed between stands and stages. The one area that lacked any people was the one near the colossal ship, which seemed to be closed off and posted with patrols.

With a plan in mind, Anna jumped over the edge, letting gravity take over and sending her sliding down the cliff face.

* * *

She must've scared the lone patrol walking half to death, as she immediately dashed from the gap between stands out into the pathway, leaping onto the rodian and putting him in a headlock. Her legs wrapped around his midsection as she swung her body downwards, taking advantage of the momentum and sending herself and the man into a roll that landed them in the adjacent gap with her on top and the man disoriented.

They landed inside the opposite gap. She immediately drew her vibroblade and hit the patrol on the head, immediately resting the tip of the blade on the side of his neck afterwards and covering his mouth. "Whatever it is you're selling, where are you keeping it?"

In hindsight, it was pretty obvious that the man would speak Rodese, which Anna did not understand a single word of.

"Oh," Anna said, feeling rather chagrined. "Umm, do you know Basic?"

He nodded fiercely. "Light freighter, docked under ship engines."

"Thanks," Anna said, before delivering a strong blow with the bottom of her blade to the side of the rodian, knocking him unconscious. She stood up, looking around for any witnesses before going on the move.

She was expecting a challenge when she entered the restricted area. To Anna's surprise, the patrols did their job with neglect. Each one worked alone, walking along a pre-determined path and doing nothing else. None of them bothered to peek at the darkened nooks and crannies between each tent, simply just staring ahead. It was laughably easy to sneak past them.

Her brow furrowed as she ducked behind a crate, hiding from a passing patrol. She's was getting close. The relatively small ship, which appeared to be a YT-1200 light freighter, was just a couple of stands away, parked with its ramp underneath extended and only two people guarding it.

She circled around the side of the stands, sneaking under the ship and behind the ramp. She immediately made her move, jumping to the left of the guard on the right of the ramp and stabbing him in the neck. Before the other guard was able to react, she dashed towards him and slashed at his neck as well.

After dragging both their bodies underneath their ramp, she walked inside the ship.

The second thing she noted was that the interior of the ship seemed to be stripped bare. It was nothing but an empty space - no doubt they did so in order to store more ill-gotten goods.

The first thing she noticed was there was only one thing inside. It wasn't even a thing, it was a _person_ that was shackled to the wall.

And she was _beautiful._ She looked at Anna, head tilted and with a curious gaze, and Anna saw beautiful, mesmerizing blue eyes, with petite features on her face forming the most attractive person she has ever seen. The woman was slim, and had slicked back platinum-blonde hair tied into a braid that hung down her back. She had flawless, smooth white skin, and perfectly proportioned legs, hips, and breasts.

Yes, Anna noticed her proportions. It wasn't because she was being lecherous - in fact, she was blushing very hard.

No, it was because the woman was dressed in a _very revealing_ red and gold bikini.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Okay! This is surprising. No really, it's very surprising. It's my first ever fanfiction, ever (discounting all the stuff just lying around in Google Docs that are all incomplete), and I've gotten like, 400+ views! I don't know if that's a little or a lot here but I'm calling that a success!**

 **I'm gonna have to research on this as I go. The EU of Star Wars is _massive_. **

**God. Now I have to write this out. I'm just writing up the plot as it goes. I have an idea for the story for like, the next five chapters or so, but beyond that I actually have to think of an overarching plot. There's also school, too. I don't know how hectic it's going to get but it's probably going to get _really_ hectic.**

 **I'll still try to update this as much as I can, but this is a very daunting task.**

 **Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Her suit was getting a bit too stuffy at the moment.

Anna felt her cheeks flushing, reddening out of embarrassment. She expected a great deal of other things to be the Bonfath's valued cargo, perhaps a cache of Empire military surplus, or even glitterstim packages. Heck, even Ilum crystals, and no one really even knew what they did, were more likely to be the thing that was valuable enough to get the gang to organize an outright auction.

This, however, went against all her expectations.

The girl wore a red bikini that had a gold metal frame and trimmings, with two long red fabrics extending from the lower piece down to just past her knee, where two decrepit-looking boots rested, secured to her feet. It left nothing to the imagination - every inch of smooth, flawless skin, from her long slender arms to her shapely legs, was left on display for any lecherous individual to feast their eyes upon.

Including Anna herself.

She simply stood still, stuck staring slack-jawed at the blonde. She couldn't help herself. Her eyes just wouldn't tear off of the figure in front of her. Her beauty radiated intensely, like the two suns of the very planet they stood on, and it caught the young bounty hunter off-guard.

The blonde girl just sat there on her side, long slender legs unobscured, staring at Anna with her head tilted, her eyes filled with wonder and curiosity, as if seeing something for the first time ever. Anna stared back with a drastically different sentiment, confusion, astonishment, and awkwardly enough, titillation.

The silence was deafening. Any more of this awkward silence and Anna was going to go mad.

"Uhh...well, umm," Anna stumbled with her words.

 _Dammit,_ Anna thought. _Stop going stupid at the super sexy lady and do your job._

She managed to tear her gaze off of the woman, albeit with much difficulty, and directed it towards the rest of the interior, or more accurately, the lack of one. The entire ship looked gutted from the inside - its metal framework was exposed, and frayed wires hung from the non-existent ceiling. It looked like a firefight happened inside the ship, and judging from the scorch marks that decorated what little walling the ship had left, it wasn't such a far-fetched notion.

Anna took a tentative step forward. A shuffling sound drew her attention back to the scantily-clad woman who was now slowly shifting away from the armed and armored girl, or at least trying to. It was only now that Anna realized that the woman was chained to fixtures on the wall behind her. A long metal chain link was attached to the collar on her neck, with similar binds to her wrists and ankles. They were long enough to allow her full movement of her arms and legs, but too short for her to do anything else.

The bounty hunter immediately stopped, sheathing her vibroblade and lowering down in an attempt to look as nonthreatening as possible. "Whoa, whoa, hey. It's alright. I'm not here to hurt you."

"Are you my new master?"

The question threw her for a loop. "What?"

"Are you my new master?" She asked again, her tone of voice indeterminable.

"What do you, um..." Anna almost got distracted again. "What do you mean?

"My last master forbade me from making contact with anyone else other than him," she stated nonchalantly, as if it were a regular occurrence for her. "I would like to know if you are my new master, so that my standing orders may be nullified."

"Master, orders..." Anna said softly. "You're a slave?"

In retrospect, it was quite obvious. All the signs were there: the chains, the cuffs, and the outfit that generously showcased her... assets.

"What is a slave?" She asked before Anna could get sidetracked. "The others I have served with have kept on calling me that, but I do not know what it means."

For a brief moment, there was no sound, no words, no idle noises, nothing. The slow comprehension of the facts given gradually gave way to horror.

She doesn't know, Anna realized. She doesn't know she's a...

Anna did everything in her power to prevent herself from marching right down the ramp and shoot every Dar Bonfath member she could see. She was livid. This was an unforgivable transgression. The girl was treated as property, something lower than the insects under a man's boot, and she didn't know that such an inhumane act was being committed against her.

It all made sense: her calmness despite her restraints and attire, her apathy despite essentially being living cargo to be sold off at the highest bidder.

"So you don't know," Anna uttered faintly, slowly making her way in front of the shackled woman. "You don't know any life other than this?"

She was bewildered, and Anna's heart ached at the sight of her genuine bewilderment. "What else is there? I'm to serve, I'm to be sold, I'm to serve again."

At that moment, Anna made up her mind.

She would get her out of here.

"You passed the test," Anna declared suddenly, hoping to sound convincing enough to the slave girl.

She looked uncertain. "What test, and what for, if I may?"

"My...err, secret test. Yeah," Anna said, trying to sound convincing even to herself. "I'm actually your new owner," she added, withholding her guilt at her choice of words.

The slave girl was in a daze for a moment, before she reacted. "Very well," she simply said, immediately standing up and giving Anna an even more complete look at her body.

The bounty hunter was very, very distracted. "Hoo-kay," she remarked, coughing.

She stood up at full height, and she looked to be a third of a head taller than Anna, with a slim figure and curves that only underscored her attire.

"What is your bidding, master," she said, with her hands clasped in front of her. Anna didn't miss the flinch of her fingers

Anna gave out an extended exhale. "Well, first of all, it's actually mistress, not master."

"Oh?"

Her brow furrowed. "I don't sound like a boy, do I?"

"Oh! No, no," Elsa hastily said. "it's just that your face is covered, and all my previous masters were male. You moved differently from all the other women I've seen, too, so I simply assumed you had a high pitched voice."

"Ah," Anna understood. "Well, Yes, I'm a girl." She began to pull down her hood and scarf.

When she finished, the slave girl finally got a good look at Anna's face. In all honesty, she didn't expect that. The bounty hunters she usually saw interacting with her past masters were either ugly, with burns and marks dotting their already unattractive face, or just simply indiscernible, covered with helmets or any other similar gear.

The latter was true for the one in front of her, but she usually never saw their face if that were the case - they valued their relative anonymity too much to do that. And then suddenly, here was one who did just that.

And she was surprised. She'd gathered from the voice that she was young, but not that young-looking. She had to be around her late teens at the least, early twenties at the most. Red hair braided into pigtails hung lazily down each side of her face, which was dotted with freckles on lightly tanned skin. Her green eyes stared at her with an unfamiliar look - it almost looked like...concern?

The bounty hunter cleared her throat. "Hi! I'm Anna."

She extended her gloved hand towards her, and the slave looked at it in confusion. "Umm, Elsa."

 _Elsa,_ Anna thought. _What a pretty name._

She then realized that Elsa was clueless as to what to do with the hand she just offered. "Oh, uhh." Anna grabbed Elsa's right hand, bringing it into her own and clasping it. "You're supposed to shake my hand."

"I'm... afraid I don't follow."

 _"You two!"_

Both of them jumped at the same time, and Anna dropped into a kneel, immediately training her blaster pistol on the entrance of the ship.

Moments passed, and no one entered the ship. Anna was ready to throw her last remaining thermal detonator at whoever was outside when another voice sounded out.

 _"Hey! It's time to sell the girl,"_ the voice resounded. _"You two better get off your asses and bring her over to the stage right now or I'll go over there and kill you two myself."_

Anna breathed a sigh of relief, lowering her blaster. "Stay here," she said to Elsa. "I'll check outside."

"Yes, mistress." Anna exited the ship. The sound came from under the ramp, and she saw the comlinks of the two deceased guards still on. She had just grabbed one of them when a voice spoke again.

 _"I'm sending T'sak and his crew to pick the girl up - just get her ready. Don't damage the goods."_

 _Uh oh,_ Anna realized. _We're going to have company._

* * *

Elsa just stood, following her mistress's last orders. She was an odd one. Most of her masters just did away with the pleasantries, barking orders at her and basically just doing whatever they wanted with their property.

Her fingers twitched at a memory she couldn't quite recall.

Anna was different from the get-go. She showed concern at the very start, putting away her weapon and reassuring her. Most didn't even bother - they just did whatever they wished with whatever was in their hand at that time.

She looked at the hand the red-headed bounty hunter just held, remembering the warm sensation she felt as she gently held it.

Suddenly, a series of frantic footsteps snapped her out of her reverie. She looked up and saw Anna running towards her. The redhead stopped suddenly, remembering something she forgot.

"Oh, right. The chains."

With one swift motion, she drew the blade sheathed at the back of her belt and slashed at her restraints. The metal links fell, hitting the floor with a resounding clink.

"Elsa, listen to me." Anna said, her voice commanding. "I need you to stay close to me and keep your head down. There are people coming to hurt you and I, and I need you to keep up as best you can. Do you think you can do that?"

The blonde was puzzled. Why would it matter if she could keep up? The only thing that mattered was that she could comply with any and all orders given to her, so why would she ask something like that? "Yes, mistress."

"Good." She pulled up her hood and scarf, once again covering her entire face save for her green eyes. "Also, don't call me mistress. Call me Anna. As far as I'm concerned, we're equals."

"Oh. Alright then… Anna."

Elsa couldn't tell under the all coverings, but she must've seen her cheeks move upwards in a smile. "Great. Follow me and stay low." She began to hastily move towards the cockpit of the derelict ship, keeping a hand on Elsa's back and bringing the slave girl along with her.

* * *

Don't you dare think about it, don't you dare think about it, Anna repeated over and over like a mantra, trying to distract herself from the soft feeling of Elsa's skin on her finger tips.

They got to the cockpit, and she motioned for Elsa to keep her head below the windows. With her body hunched down, she looked at the screens, switches, and levers that dotted the console in front of her. She found what she was looking for: a ship-board transceiver.

Entering the codes and frequency of the homing beacon, she received Nassad's location: a large stage in the middle of the literal black market. It was in full view - thanks to the inclined slope of the entire landscape, she had full range of vision on almost all the footpaths that were perpendicular to the ship, and not to mention the entirety of the stage.

It was crowded. A large gathering had come together surrounding the stage, no doubt in anticipation of the auction about to happen. She spotted a familiar scarred Chistori pacing around on the floorboards of the rickety stadium.

The view was perfect, no obstacles, and a straight sight picture. It was an opportunity she couldn't waste.

Anna pulled out the hunting rifle, loading it with a magazine and pulling back the bolt, chambering a bullet. Hefting the stock to rest against her shoulder, she took aim, looking through the scope she'd slapped on it as a modification.

The scope was supposed to be digital, designed to interface with a longbarrel blaster and provide the user with accurate distance readouts and targeting systems. It wasn't, however, designed for 'primitive' slugthrowers like the Tof Soren, and therefore she was forced to rely on the old-fashioned analog function of a simple crosshair. Not that Anna minded, of course. She'd hit her target more than she'd miss one, even with the slug's travel time and drop.

Her crosshair was focused on her target: just a bit above Nassed's head. With her mark already acquired, Anna pulled out a detonator from one of the pouches of her outfit.

On the way here as she walked through the area open to the public, pushing through all sorts of people from all walks of life looking for something illegal to buy, she managed to place two of her thermal detonators on two different supply areas of two different vendors. They both sold unlicensed munitions, which would make a huge mess when she'd blow them up. Hopefully everyone would attribute it to the faulty quality of their wares, and cause enough confusion for her to take out as much gang members as she could at a distance before having to get up close and personal.

With her gun and detonator at the ready, Anna exhaled, calming her breath and steadying her sway, waiting for the perfect moment.

* * *

Nassad was getting very irritated.

The crowd was getting impatient, and he didn't have time for this. Those bumbling idiots there at the ship guarding their precious cargo haven't even responded to his orders. He was standing there on the stage, with his (figurative) tail between his legs and still no slave girl in sight.

 _Dammit,_ he thought to himself. _Those incompetent asswipes. I'm going to have their asses after this._

He pulled out his comlink. "T'sak, are you there yet? They're not responding."

 _"Just got into the private area. We're gonna get the girl soon. Calm yourself, you horndog."_

"Kiss my ass," Nassed spat back. "I just want to get the money and get this over with."

 _"Soon, boss. Soon."_

The chistori growled, switching off his comlink.

It was a stroke of luck. They were simply on a regular raiding run, and they came across a lone YT-1200 light freighter headed towards Tatooine. It had no escort, no weapons, nothing. It was virtually a sitting duck, ripe for the picking.

And pick they did.

After disabling the ship with an ion cannon, they boarded it. The raid was simple enough. They shot up everyone in the ship. Most died instantly, and the ones who didn't were promptly sent over to the superfreighter as fresh meat for the members who got 'antsy' while out on their runs.

To their surprise, the ship carried nothing of value - not initially, anyways. It held no spices, no illicit arms, nothing for them to use nor sell.

Then they saw a box in the corner. When they pried it open, their feelings on the entire raid being a waste immediately turned around.

The girl was a work of art in and of itself, with a beauty like a goddess and an outfit like a brothel worker. They'd have taken her for their own personal use when they noticed what she wore.

Once they got past the salaciousness of the outfit, they realized just who exactly they discovered. That red and gold harness was iconic and unique among the criminal underbelly of the galaxy - the only one who wore it was the slave owned by…

Suddenly, their minds were off of possible physical relations, and on possible monetary profits. They'd make a lot of credits if they sold her to the right people.

And so the Dar Bonfath organized the entire bazaar. Criminal figures from various territories flocked together for this one event. It was fascinating, seeing all these people gather together for this one girl, but then again he had to admit, she was very pleasing to the eye.

Suddenly, his comlink began to sound off.

"What now, T'sak," he said into the comlink.

 _"Boss, we just found one of our patrols unconscious!"_

Before Nassed could even utter a response, a large explosion from a nearby stand threw him off his feet.

He landed on his back, disoriented and ears ringing - a fact that wasn't helped by the sudden frenzy of everyone surrounding him.

Another explosion shook the earth, vibrating against the wooden planks that made the stage floor. Crowds dissolved, everyone ran for their lives, and the shouts echoed across the entire place, turning the entire market into one big amalgamation of sound.

He rolled over, pushing himself up in an attempt to get back on his feet. He heard the recognizable sound of a weapon discharging.

Nassad looked up, and he was no more.

* * *

Through her scope, she saw scarred Chistori fall down dead with a hole in his head.

Anna knelt there, trigger and detonator untouched with a shocked expression on her face.

Elsa looked at her from below the console, clueless as to what was going on and what the loud noises were.

She looked back at her, surprised and more than a bit worried. "That was _not_ me."

The surprise only increased as more explosions rocked the ground, and blaster bolts began to rain down from the cliffs above.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: This is going to be the death of me.**

 **I'm posting this at 12:30 in the middle of the night. I have to wake up at 5:30. Good bye, sleep - I hardly knew ye.**

 **In other news, writing is really hard _(-onerustybucket 2015)._ I've been trying to keep a schedule of one day between updates but it's very difficult to do. I'm really invested in this story now, so much so that it's kinda worrying (because I'm Elsanna trash, it's nothing new), so don't worry, I'll update this as much as I can, but gaps between updates are probably going to get longer**

 **Well, I just finished this in the middle of the night. I'm going to go to sleep, try to make those five hours of sleep count.**

 **Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

The calm night sky was bathed in an orange hue from the fires below, and illuminated by the various colors of laser blasts flying from above.

Chaos.

T'sak looked back at the circle. The entire place resembled a warzone - majority the makeshift stalls were either entirely destroyed or completely ablaze. The very ground shook as explosions rocked throughout the entire camp. Screaming filled the air, as all sorts of people ran in every direction, trying to avoid becoming targets of the mysterious combatants stationed up on the cliffs.

He was horrified. Just moments ago, he was about to be the catalyst for what was probably going to be the most significant event in the history of the fledgling criminal gang. This was supposed to finally put the Dar Bonfath on the map, get them a proper reputation, and set them up for life with an unprecedented amount of money.

Now, it was looking to be their downfall.

The crackle of static brought his attention down to the comlink in his hand. "Nassad, tell me what the hell is going on!"

 _"He's dead, sir!"_

 _Shit,_ T'sak cursed in his mind. "Who's in charge?"

"You are!"

 _Even more shit._ "Well then you tell me what's going on!"

 _"There are guns set up above! A bunch of them are walking through market, shooting anyone they see! Wait, what the-"_ The sound of an ignition cut him short, and then static.

Despite his distress, he was able to spot a barrage of bolts headed towards him and his crew at the last minute.

"Get down!" The Chiss yelled before jumping for cover as well. He dove for the stand in front of him. The blasts tore through their meager protection, sending wooden splinters spraying everywhere.

Some were lucky, evading the lasers just like him. Others were not - they noticed too late and were cut down. The poor sod who they found unconscious was one of the unlucky ones, immediately taking multiple of the bolts to the chest and dying in his sleep.

He stared back at the other fallen bodies, riddled with smoking holes. This was indeed chaos. His group of ten had just been cut down to seven in an instant - scratch that, six. Another deluge had just torn through one of the stands, completely ripping it apart and shredding another one.

"We can't stay here!" T'sak yelled out to the survivors.

"Then what the hell do we do now?" One of them yelled back, hunched into his cover and shielding himself from the debris

"We get the girl!" He responded as he started crawling. "We stay here and we'll end up like them! Once we get under the superfreighter, they can't shoot at us. At least if we get the girl, we can get a chance to salvage the entire thing and still make some money!"

He saw the light freighter nearby. It was just a few minutes crawl away, but when he saw another one of his comrades fall mid-crawl to the never-ending hail of lasers, he realized that some of them might not make it through the short trip.

* * *

 _"Bring the girl to the superfreighter! We need to get out of here now!"_

 _"Hey! Are you guys alive? What's happening? Wait, what the-"_ Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by a cracking, igniting sound, followed by pure static.

All this came from the comlink Anna held in her hand.

 _What in the world is happening?_ The redheaded bounty hunter thought to herself, as she looked at the carnage and destruction ensuing right in front of her. The cockpit was lit up with a bright orange light, constantly dimming and flashing as lasers flew back and forth through the air. Another explosion erupted, shaking and rattling the cabin and sending spurts of dust wafting down on the pair.

"What's going on?" Elsa said, her eyes widened and staring unblinkingly into the chaotic scene unfolding. It was a common question tonight - Anna, Elsa, and so many others, judging from the hysteric voices over the comlink, were looking for answers as to just what is happening right now.

Baffling, that's what it was. The entire situation was sudden - one minute, Anna was about to assassinate a gang leader, and then next thing she knew, it was a battlefield. Shots were fired, and things blew apart.

"I have no idea," Anna answered honestly, her hand on the blonde's back pulling her closer. "Whatever happens, we're gonna get out of here," she reassured the slave girl.

 _Those bolts are firing awfully close to us,_ Anna noticed. Blue bolts of light rained down onto a spot close to the ship. That only meant one thing: enemies were approaching.

At least they had defilade from that particular spot - they didn't have any from the other repeating blaster nest.

From her perch in the cockpit of the YT-1200, she saw where the bolts were coming from. There were two cliffs that encircled the entire area, and they were divided by three passes, one on each side of the cliff. Anna couldn't make out exactly how many attackers were on the cliff near her, since her view was obstructed by the underside of the superfreighter above, but she did have full view of the emplacements on the farther cliff.

She brought up the rifle once again. Through the scope, she saw that there were three repeating blasters set up. Each Mark II repeating blaster cannon was manned by teams of two, one operating the cannon, and one to serve as a spotter. All of them lay in a prone position, minimizing where she could shoot at.

Six contacts, with only five bullets in her magazine and only the head for her to aim for.

Anna exhaled, steadying her breath. The finger on the trigger was pulled half-way through, ready to fire.

Two shots were fired off in quick succession, the built in suppressor negating most of the sound save for the thump of the coils driving the projectile forward. Its kick went ignored by Anna. The glass fractured, but didn't fall apart and instead obscured her vision.

"Shit," Anna cursed, knocking the broken glass panelling out with the butt of her rifle. As her line of sight was restored, she saw her shots pay off as one of the repeating cannons ceased firing. She had to act quickly, though. No doubt the other pairs noticed them dying.

She quickly brought up her rifle again, firing three shots rapidly. Another set of blue laser bolts stopped altogether, but the last remaining one had already caught up and began firing at her.

"Dammit," she shouted as the blasts filled the cockpit, hitting random panels and consoles and sending sparks flying throughout the entire cabin. She fumbled for a bit, attempting to load in a fresh new magazine loaded with bullets. "Are you alright, Elsa?" Anna asked, amidst all the debris flying.

"Yes," Elsa responded, her back straight up against the panel. Her barely covered chest was heaving, breath heavy and frequent due to the intensity of the firefight. "I'm alright."

 _Her chest isn't what you're supposed to be staring at, you idiot!_ Anna shook her head. "Good! Just stay there and don't-" She turned her head away as a barrage whizzed right beside her head, taking out a good chunk of the terminal.

 _Oh damn, they're getting closer-Oh crap!_ At the last minute, Anna threw herself out of cover.

Said cover was completely obliterated - each square inch broke apart in a spectacular fashion, and the redhead only barely avoided the same fate herself.

Although, now she found herself looking down on Elsa, kneeling between her legs.

 _This is so awkward,_ Anna thought to herself, pushing her intrusive thoughts out of her head as she pulled herself up and took aim with her rifle once again.

* * *

 _This is so...something,_ Elsa thought to herself. She couldn't help but stare at Anna's hips right in front of her, even as that last startling shot resounded, and the streaks of superheated gas came to a halt.

A blush filled her cheeks.

* * *

"Someone has the girl!"

She didn't even have the time to catch her breath.

Anna's head lifted at the shout, which came from outside. She immediately bolted towards the cockpit exit when she heard the tapping of feet running up the ramp and into the ship.

They arrived.

She caught the slightest glimpse of someone rounding the corner, and she reacted. Jumping on the leftward wall, she leapt off, grabbing the handle of the vibroblade and unsheathed it, slashing at the same time. The body stumbled over the the side, bleeding from the throat.

In an instant, she saw three other men in the narrow corridor. Two of them were armed with vibrostaffs, while the one further at the back was armed with a blaster.

Even before she landed, she had already assessed the situation. The moment the bounty hunter's feet touched the ground, she transitioned into a roll, tumbling towards the left side of the one in front of her. The lengthiness of the staffs proved to be a detriment to such a tight space, and they were unable to maneuver fast enough to retaliate.

Anna moved like an imperceptible blur, too fast for the other two to make out exactly what she was doing. Grabbing the head of the man she ended up beside, she ran across the wall, dodging the horizontal slash of the vibrostaff wielded by the man that was next. With her momentum, she kicked him in the head with a sickening snap, using the head she grasped as a pivot for her to swing around and land on the opposite side.

Blaster shots came her way, fired from the last remaining man in the hallway, but they didn't hit their intended target. Anna was using the adversary she grappled earlier as a human shield now. As the now-limp, dead creature slumped over, she pulled the blaster out of her holster, quick on the draw as she immediately sent three shots down the corridor. All three shots connected, and a thump echoed.

Anna breathed heavily. The whole place was littered with dead bodies.

The bounty hunter stayed alert, even though the hallway had no living thing left in it. Walking slowly and surely, stepping over the bodies and picking up the blade she had dropped earlier during the fight along the way, she trained her pistol with both hands on any and all points of attack.

Suddenly, just as she was half-way through the doorframe, a kick came from the side and sent her S-5 flying to the right.  
She looked right, and barely dodged under a wild swing of a fist. Just as quickly, the unknown kneed the redhead in the face, sending her tumbling backwards.

Her assailant was a Chiss her height, and he knew how to fight. His knee was quickly followed by a swift series of punches and jabs, which Anna only barely managed to redirect away. One of the jabs she managed to get into a hold, using it to slam him face-first into the walls of the main cabin.

Before she managed to do it again, he delivered a kick to the back of her leg, bringing her to her knees. He clutched the back of her head and returned the favor, repeating what she did to him. Anna managed to duck under his hold, grappling him and slamming him into a nearby wall. He was strong, however, and tossed the redhead over to the side.

Anna leapt to her feet, getting into a defensive stance once again. He did the same, catching his breath along with his opponent, and they began to circle each other. The room was tense, with neither of them willing to make the first move.

"You're pretty good," the Chiss remarked, gasping heavily as he walked past the corridor leading to the cockpit. "But I ain't gonna let you take away the girl."

His surge forward was interrupted by a metal chain abruptly fastening around his neck. He choked, grasping around his neck in an attempt to get it off of him.

Anna seized the opportunity, dashing forward and punching him in the face. He fell down, limp and unconscious.

She then looked up to see a familiar blonde, tired and panting, clutching the severed chain that still hung from the collar on her neck in both her hands.

They both heaved heavily, and not a word was spoken between them. They did reach an understanding, though, acknowledging just what had happened.

"Thanks," Anna said, with her hands on her knees gasping for breath. "That helped a lot."

Elsa simply stood, out of breath just like Anna.

"Let me get that chain off of you, and then we can get out of this forsaken rust bucket of a ship," Anna said, drawing the vibroblade. "I've had enough of this place to last a lifetime."

* * *

"I said I've had enough of this place to last a lifetime!" Anna exclaimed, smoke exuding from the barrel of her slugthrower as the four corpses rolled down the cliff.

Just as soon as they exited the ship and began to make their way out of the death trap, they were immediately fired upon. It turned out that the emplacements firing down on the crew earlier still weren't taken out yet, a fact Anna sought to solve as soon as possible.

With the crew now dead at the foot of the cliff, they finally had some down time. Up until now, all the events that had happened to them just blurred together in a haze of confusion, desperation, and adrenaline. Now that no one was shooting at them, they had enough calm to take stock.

They walked down the thoroughfare leading down to the main grounds. Most of the stands were on fire, embers crackling as they burned down slowly into ashen remains. Some were just simply destroyed, reduced to nothing but rubble and debris. Very few were left untouched.

Walking down the path where the repeating blasters rained hell down on earlier, she saw that almost everything had been obliterated. Black scorch marks dotted the ground, and nothing there resembled anything anymore.

Even the people.

Anna recoiled in horror as she barely recognized the patrol that she'd knocked out earlier lying dead, no doubt fallen prey to the gunners. She also saw six other bodies along the path which she inferred was taken by the group that had attacked her earlier in the ship.

It was a gruesome sight. One of the casualties had it the worst, having been reduced to nothing more than chunks of meat, bone, blood, and wooden splinters, the last one obviously coming from the flimsy wooden board he had chosen as his cover.

Had she been more inexperienced, she would've vomited. Indeed, she did so the first time she'd seen a sight like this on one of her bounties. However, she was experienced enough by this point to have limited her reaction to the gory scene presented before her to simply just feeling sick in the stomach

Elsa, however…

She kept an eye on the blonde slave girl - surprisingly, she only looked visibly queasy, and not already in the process of emptying her stomach.

Curiosity arose within Anna. "Are you alright?" She couldn't help but ask.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine," Elsa responded, looking away from the mutilated body. "It's just...I didn't expect to see this much death," she stated further, looking at the other corpses that littered the path.

"You're used to this, aren't you?"

"I guess you could say that," she answered. "My masters did this a lot, mostly with other servants that didn't...perform as well as I did. I was lucky to be spared, even more so to be spared from seeing how the others died."

"Servants? Were they slaves like you?"

"I'm not sure. I still don't exactly know what a slave is, mistress."

"Anna," the redhead reiterated.

"Right, Anna," Elsa said sheepishly. "Sorry."

"It's alright, I understand," Anna reassured her. "So you've been...serving others for your entire life?"

Elsa looked taken aback by the inference "How did you know, mis-Anna?"

"Well," Anna began, with a finger on her chin. "You didn't look as shaken up as other slaves I met, and you looked pretty."

Anna realized her verbal slip-up. "Indifferent! Pretty indifferent, yeah. Also you don't know what slave means, despite the fact that you kinda are one."

"Speaking of which…" Elsa said, hinting at a little something that Anna forgot to explain.

"Oh, right," she remembered. "So, a slave is-"

Blue streaks of highly ionized plasma began whizzing right past them. Anna instantly shielded Elsa from any potential brunt of the attack, bringing her to nearby cover.

"Let us catch a break, dammit!" Anna yelled back at the assailants,

"She's over there!" They shouted, keeping Anna in cover with suppressing fire. The bounty hunter popped out of her protection, but the volume of fire meant that she only managed to get a couple shots down-range, an action which proved fruitful as a couple men fell over, smoke rising from their blast wounds. "Tell Carinus we have the location of the asset!"

 _So they're here for Elsa._

She dove back into cover. From the small glimpse, she could discern that they were a step above the usual criminal brutes that seemed to make up majority of her enemies. They attacked with precision, evidenced effectively keeping Anna from firing back at them, and moved with purpose and strategy, as evidenced by the small glimpse of a detachment running to the side, attempting to flank her.

"Stay here," Anna told Elsa. "They're here for you, so they're not going to risk hurting you."

Elsa nodded, and Anna bolted off to the side.

She ran down the path, dashing through stalls to get to the pathway that they were no doubt headed for. She pulled out both her S-5 and her last remaining thermal detonator, priming the last one to explode.

She leaped on the rooftops of the stands, running closer to the gap between stands that enclosed the flanking route. She jumped, and sure enough there were four men down there. At the same time, she let go of the detonator, rolling on the roof opposite to the one she just leapt off as the bomb exploded, taking out the entire group in one fell swoop.

Transitioning smoothly into a crouched aiming stance, she began firing at the ones who were suppressing her earlier. Taken by surprise, it wasn't long until they were all down, falling one by one to the precision shots of Anna's blaster.

As the last man fell, Anna thought that was the last of them. She was quickly proven wrong by the thud behind her, and the sound of ignition.

At the last minute, she threw herself off the rooftop, just narrowly dodging the swing of a...green glowing thing.  
Flying through the air, she hit the ground hard, knocking the air out of her lungs. Propping herself up on her elbows, she found herself in the middle of the wide open area that held the stage where Elsa was supposed to be sold. Not just bodies, but body parts were scattered across the circle, severed by what she assumed was the one she was staring at.

It was a tall, lean figure, draped in dark robes and, more unusually, wielding a green glowing sword, the blade flowing from what looked to be a handle of some sorts

He stepped off the rooftop, landing gracefully while flourishing. The sword hummed, buzzing intensely as he swung it around. Anna climbed onto her feet and raised her blaster to fire at the robed figure, but she didn't even get the chance to do so.

The man raised his hand and flicked it over to the side, and her blaster _flew_ out of her hands.

"You have something that belongs to my client," he said. Anna immediately knew what, or rather, who, he was talking about.

"She's not a thing!" Anna exclaimed, barely containing her anger at his words. "By my hand, she's not to be anyone's property!"

"That girl is property of my client. She was bought in a legitimate transaction, and therefore she is rightful property of-"

"Bullshit! She's a human being, and deserves to live a free life!" Anna looked around at the carnage that decorated the circle. "But I'm guessing she means nothing to you, given what you've done around here."

"She's a mission, and you," he pointed the light sword at Anna. "You're standing in my way."

Anna didn't have much of a chance. Whoever this man was, if he was able to do that much to that many people, what more could he do to to her? He knew how to use that thing he was using, and not to mention whatever he did with her blaster.

Simply put, she was dealing with an unknown. Whether she would live through the one-on-one fight with him was also unknown.

In the face of all of that, she still drew her vibroblade in defiance. "Why don't try and get past me, then?"

All he did in response was scoff at her, before dashing forward in a literal instant. One second, he was a few meters away from her, the next, he was right in front of her. The act was so fast that she barely had time to block his sideways slash at her right.

The heat radiating off of the light sword was intense, so intense that she could feel it despite the space between her and the weapon. Despite the intense heat, she was surprised that her blade still held together, instead of melting all the way.

The mysterious warrior looked to be the same. "A cortosis weave?"

Sensing an opening, Anna pushed the sword back and delivered a series of quick slashes at her opponent. Despite his initial surprise, the man was able to parry all of her attacks with ease, deflecting all her attacks with his blade.

His light sword and her vibroblade clashed together, pushing against each other as the two dueling were locked in a battle of strength. "This is going to be fascinating," the robed figure offhandedly remarked.

The melee resumed, with the Anna barely holding her own against the man's renewed, fierce offensive. As they continue to fight, Anna surprisingly found herself able to keep up with the lightning fast slashes, stabs, and strikes directed towards her, if only by the skin of her own teeth.

She struggled to gain any sort of advantage over the man, who seemed to be enjoying the fight. He was obviously a master of his craft, with every slash being precise, every counter well executed, and every flurry of rapid movement flawlessly carried out. He was toying with her, and Anna knew that eventually he would stop and bring a decisive end to the duel.

He suddenly made a move with a series of high-speed slashes and hacks, which caught her off-guard. Even with the heavy-looking robe, he moved like a blur. The blade swung over and over and over again, and just by a hair's breadth would she be able to parry strike after strike, Their weapons clashed in brilliantly bright sparks that almost obscured her vision.

His rapid attacks ended in another stalemate against the bounty hunter. He pushed hard, and Anna was close to buckling under the intensity of his might and the heat of his blade.

"You're well-versed in Soresu."

Even in her dire situation, Anna was slightly confused. "I beg your pardon?"

"Soresu. The way you fight with your blade. You fight gracefully, like a warrior from a more enlightened era," he stated wistfully, as if remembering a time long passed.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

If he heard what she said, then he didn't pay any attention to it. "There's more to you than meets the eye, little girl. I can sense it. The Force is strong in you."

Okay, now Anna was really confused. "The for- what?"

"I sense a great courage in you," he said. "You fight to the last breath, and never falter. And compassion. Yes, you have compassion, a desire to see all those you hold dear safe."

He suddenly began to press his advantage, pushing down on her. Anna stumbled back, stepping backwards constantly just to regain her foothold "But I also sense fear and anger. It has seeped into your very essence - you've grown in it. Yes, the Dark Side beckons to you. All you need to do is to heed its call."

Anna grunted. She was running out of steam. "Urgh. St-stop talking nonsense and just g-get this over with."

His mouth curved upwards, a smug grin forming on his face. "As you wish."

He countered, swinging his blade and disarming Anna, using the momentum of his flourishes to send the vibroblade flying out of Anna's hand.

Anna tried to counter with a meager punch, but she wasn't even able to throw it before the man picked her up without so much as a single touch. She found herself being lifted up into the air by an unknown force. Any attempt she made to escape his clutches was futile. The man suddenly threw her forward, slamming her into the stand behind her, before pulling her back and swinging her through the air and down into the ground.

The bounty hunter cried out in pain. She was pretty sure she received more than a few bruises, probably even a broken bone - it certainly felt like it, judging from the immense pain she endured from her left arm. Despite her will to defy the man that slowly walked over to where she lay broken and defeated, she simply couldn't muster up the energy to do anything else other than writhe around in pain.

"Such a shame," he said, raising his green-hued blade. "You would've made a great apprentice."

 _This is it,_ Anna thought, closing her eyes. _Couldn't even show Elsa a free life._

The mysterious robed man didn't even have the time to stab her, though, as plasma blasts began flying towards him. He got distracted, instead lifting his blade to block the incoming bolts.

Anna looked around and saw Elsa wielding her S-5, firing at her would-be killer.

He blocked the shots easily, reflecting them in different directions, but he took extra care not to make any of the shots refract back towards his attacker. Anna noticed the stand behind him, the one that he threw her into, and remembered an important fact that she forgot amidst all of the shooting and fighting.

She planted a thermal detonator in that stand.

In one last surge of adrenaline, she mustered up the strength to lift her legs, attempting to kick at the man who was slowly walking backwards. The kick didn't seem to connect, but regardless, he flew backwards, crashing into the stand and sending miscellaneous items flying in different directions.

She coughed, pulling the remote detonator from her utility belt. The man's eyes widened, and she pushed the red button.

Two explosive blasts shook the ground she lay on, one occurring far away from where the fight was located, and threw Elsa on her back. The stand erupted in a massive fireball, lighting up the night sky even more so that it already was, to the point of it almost looking like early morning.

As the blast occurred, Anna could've sworn that she saw a blur escaping from where the explosion happened.

"Mistress!" Anna heard Elsa shout, as she dropped the blaster and ran over to her side. "Mistress, are you alright?"

"It's," she cough, "it's not mistress, remember?"

"Anna, you're hurt really bad," Elsa uttered distraughtly, not missing a single beat.

"It's fine," Anna said, even as she winced from the pain resonanting all over her body. "Nothing some numb-spray won't fix."

She tried to get back on her feet, but collapsed midway.

"Anna, I need to get you help now!" Elsa cried out. "Where's the nearest place you can get treated?"

"You mean a doctor?" Anna said. Elsa nodded. She was able to stand up, but she was wobbly and unstable. Elsa quickly moved to grab her, leaning the redhead against her body. "The nearest one is a few kilometers away."

Elsa's hopes shattered. With those odds, there was little chance of her making it, not with the injuries she has.

"Don't look so down, snowflake," Anna quipped, giving the closest she could get to a reassuring look. "We can make it there. I have a speeder parked in the valley over there," she raised her finger weakly over to the gap between the cliffs in front of them.

"I'll help you get there," Elsa said determinably, wrapping Anna's arm around her neck and carrying her limping frame towards where she pointed. "Don't worry, Anna. Everything's going to be alright."

Anna nodded weakly, revelling in the warm feeling of Elsa's skin.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Fun fact - I partially wrote this at a wake (even this note).**

 **A cemetery at night kinda sounds creepy at first, but it's actually an amazing spot to do writing. It's quiet, serene. and has a unique atmosphere that makes it conducive to a marathon writing session, kinda like a Starbucks or any other coffee shop.**

 **Granted, all my work on this story so far has been nothing but marathon writing sessions, conducted at the expense of sleep, but hey - I was able to snag a boatload of coffee packets from the wake, so I'm gonna be a-okay in that regard (actually, I should probably just sleep).**

 **The Thomas Newman music I listened to made it even more eerie and amazing. He has this calm, very emotional style that I love. You guys should seriously listen to his original scores sometime.**

 **Hope you guys enjoy!**

* * *

The canyon was bathed in darkness, illuminated only by the faint flickers of yellow and orange that came from the burning market they had been slowly limping away from. The heat was slowly replaced by cold as they went further and further away from the fire and into the dark night sky of the Tattooine desert.

Elsa trudged uphill. Every step was an effort in and of itself. With the fully outfitted Anna heavily wounded, unable to move on her own without further worsening her own injuries, Elsa had tasked herself with carrying the girl to whatever their way out of here was, wherever it was they were going.

It was a rough path, and she wasn't dressed suitably for the occasion. Her thin, roughspun boots that could barely be considered proper footwear

"Augh, shit," Anna swore in an attempt to take her mind off the immense pain of her accumulated injuries. "Elsa, stop for a bit. Set me down over there."

She hesitated, before helping the redhead over to the rock face of one of the walls that made up the valley. Anna leaned back, each breath taken lengthily and heavily, disoriented and tired.

"What's wrong?" Elsa asked. She checked Anna for any signs that her condition was worsening, and upon realizing that she had no idea how to tell, she'd resorted to simply asking Anna herself.

"Nothing," Anna grunted, despite evidence to the contrary. She huffed. "Just needed to take a little something to help deal with the pain."

Anna's hand, the one that was attached to her one remaining unbroken arm, reached for a pouch on her utility belt. She pulled out a nondescript, small cylindrical canister that had a nozzle affixed to its top. When she attempted to unstrap the gauntlets and plating that enclosed her left arm, however, she instead cried out in pain as the fractured bone began rubbing against each other.

Elsa immediately stopped her from continuing any further, the shout almost sending her straight into a worried frenzy. "Let me take care of this," she hurriedly said, pulling Anna's gloved hand away from the fractured limb. "Can you tell me when it hurts?"

The redhead nodded. "Right here," she said, grunting and gasping at the pain that her injuries wrought, indicating where exactly Elsa had to help her. The slave girl began to gently unbuckle the pieces of armor the were secured to her arm. When the plating was off, she delicately rolled up the sleeve and was greeted by the grisly sight of bloody and torn flesh and muscle, with a small part of fractured bone visible.

While she recoiled slightly at the little glimpse. Anna simply stared, wincing at her injuries nonetheless, but with a mild astonishment. "Oh, that's why it hurts so much," she remarked, somewhat unfazed.

"What do I do?" Elsa asked, a bit taken aback by the relative calmness of the person in front of her.

"Take this," she instructed, handing her the canister. "Spray it all over the wounded area. Be generous."

She did what she was asked to do, spraying the contents of the cannister over her arm.

"Alright, what next?"

"We wait," Anna said, patting the ground beside her with her uninjured arm. "It's numb-spray - it's supposed to deaden feeling in my arm. I'm gonna need it so that we can get to the speeder without you having to carry my unconscious body around."

Elsa was hesitant, unsure as what to do.

"Sit down," Anna said, patting once again. "It's gonna take while for the anesthetic to kick in - might as well catch our breaths."

She accepted, sitting beside Anna.

Elsa curled up, clasping her hands in front of her raised ankles and hugging them tight. It was a cold night on the desert planet, and her attire, while seemingly custom-fit and very comfortable, wasn't exactly suited to low-temperature environments, which could be attributed to it being a revealing metal bikini, with nothing more than two long red strips of cloth attached to the bottom piece.

She shuddered slightly, and Anna took notice.

"Oh, you're getting cold?" She pulled down her hood and unraveled the scarf that covered her face, yanking it off her neck, she handed it to the blonde girl. "Take this. It's not much, but it's better than nothing."

"No, it's alright. I'm fine, Anna." she responded, politely declining the fabric. "I was never bothered by the cold, anyway." It was somewhat true, but more than that, she wasn't going to inconvenience Anna just because of a little chilly wind.

"Take it," Anna insisted. "I don't need it. I'm wearing armor - you, on the other hand, are wearing…" She blanked out, eyes wandering over Elsa's shapely figure.

Elsa giggled. "Wearing what?" She asked with a grin.

"...just take the scarf, please?" Anna pleaded with flushed. She relented, taking the scarf and wrapping it around the collar still on her neck. It was long and heavy, and Elsa was able to cover her shoulders with the remaining length.

"You look much better in a scarf than in a collar," Anna remarked with complete honesty.

At that one single comment, Elsa found her cheeks blushing themselves, which only intensified as Anna began to rest her head on her shoulder. She turned her head away from Anna, instead gazing into the ruined setting below.

Residual heat could be felt from as far as they were, a fact that only served to underscore how intensely the entire place burned. Below the docked, and now abandoned, Trade Federation superfreighter was a sea of fire, consuming everything around it like a bacteria. Smoke rose from the base of the canyon in massive black plumes that blocked out the light of the stars. Waves of heat still emanated from the distant inferno, warming the pair with each surge.

Despite the chaotic scene before them, it was oddly serene. They were far enough from it that barely any sound made it over to them. All it was, was just a captivating sight, glowing brightly and brilliantly. It was just them and that.

And so they watched the fire together, the servant and her mistress, silently.

And then Elsa began to wonder. Was mistress the proper term? Anna was a lot of things, judging from what she has seen, but a mistress? Someone who owned her and expected nothing but complete and loyal servitude?

She looked over at the girl who was leaning her head on her shoulder, eyes half-lidded. The girl looked back at Elsa, concerned as to what was bothering her.

There it was again, that look of concern. She had seen it before when she was still a young servant girl, from the seniors who had taken to becoming her guardians, but never from her masters.

"What's bothering you?"

 _She can't be a mistress._

"Elsa?"

 _A mistress doesn't ask, she orders._

"Is everything okay?

 _She isn't a mistress._ "You never bought me, did you."

The silence followed her inquiry in a way answered it, making the confirmation that came soon thereafter pointless.

"You're not my mistress."

"Yes."

What happened earlier, all the killing and violence, all the tribulations that Anna had endured to keep her safe, all she was enduring right now as a result of Anna keeping her safe, began to blur, blending together and forming the question of why exactly she did all of that. _That's the question, isn't it? Why?_

"Why?"

Anna looked puzzled for a moment, eventually comprehending.

"You were in chains," she said plainly. "No one deserves to be in chains."

Elsa was confused. What was wrong with being in chains? Her entire life was spent shackled to someone, one way or another. Since birth, she knew nothing but the life of a servant. Was there another way of living? No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't imagine what a life such as that would be like.

But there was something else. Anna wanted her to experience that.

For the first time, someone wanted to give to her. It was always Elsa who gave, whether it be time or effort. She never received, she only gave. Now, there was one who wanted to give her the life of someone who didn't serve, someone who was free to do whatever they wanted.

Free. Such an alien concept.

And at that moment, as they both stared ahead, simply staring at the sea of fire that filled the bottom of the canyon, Elsa decided that she would stay with Anna.

For better or worse.

* * *

"A slave," Anna said, leaning on Elsa as they walked up the valley. "-is someone who's forced to serve another person. The slave is pretty much treated as an object, as property, rather than an actual living being."

The anesthetic did its job. Anna's arm was numb, deadened, and didn't hurt at all. Granted, she couldn't move it at all either, but it was a reasonable trade-off for the momentary lack of pain in her left arm. Anna was able to walk, but not without assistance from Elsa, who held her by her side and had her arm around her back of her neck.

Anna's speeder was somewhere in the valley, in a nook she had hid it in when she arrived. Hopefully, it was still there, or else they'd be walking their way out of here.

"I was never forced to serve," Elsa mentioned.

"Well, you were born into slavery, right?"

"Yes."

"And you didn't know any life other than slavery?"

"Yes."

"In a way, that's being forced to serve. You never had the freedom to choose whether you could serve or not," Anna concluded.

"And that's what you want to give me," Elsa stated, rather than asked.

"The freedom to choose? Yeah," she said, giving a soft smile. "Everyone should be able to live out their own life the way they want to, as long as it doesn't interfere with anyone else's life. That's actually part of the reason I stay here."

Elsa looked around. This place looked dreadful, nothing but sand, dust, and rocks as far a the eye could see. Why would anyone want to stay here?

"What is that reason?" Elsa asked, curious.

"The Empire doesn't have a strong presence on Tattooine, or any of the Outer Rim colonies for that matter," she said. "They essentially legalized slavery with the whole dissolving of the Rights to Sentience thing. It's not just that - the entire government is xenophobic and human-centric, and there's no freedom of speech. Did you know that they massacred almost an entire species, just because they valued peace and free-speech? I mean, who commits genocide on a culture like that because they-"

Anna stopped. Her rant became more and more livid as it went on, and now Elsa stared at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh," Anna said. "Sorry if I'm babbling on. This must all be confusing to you."

"No, no. I've heard of the Empire."

"You have?"

"Some of my masters and the other servants," she began. "They mentioned something about an Empire sometimes. I'd assumed they were nice - my masters always spoke of them in high-regard."

Anna scoffed. "They're just grateful because they legalized slavery."

"Perhaps," Elsa said. "It's a bit daunting. I don't have much knowledge of how a life outside of servitude would be like."

"Oh, it's great!" Anna exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. "You're free to do whatever you like. There's a lot of things I want to show-hey!"

They arrived at the speeder, and she saw two tiny, hooded figures tinkering with the lone speeder bike that rested inside a nook in the canyon wall.

"Shoo, shoo!" Anna shouted at the pair. "That's not yours!"

The Jawas hopped off, scampering up the pile of rocks and disappearing into the valley. Anna let go of the slave girl, hobbling over to the LC-4, looking for any sign of tampering. A fair reaction, given that they were dealing with Jawas.

 _They must've been attracted by the battles,_ Anna thought.

When she got to the speeder bike, with Elsa following directly behind her, she came across a very distressing sight. The bike was in shambles - pieces from the underside of the front-end lay scattered across the ground. No doubt the bike was in the middle of being taken apart, scrapped for valuable spare parts to be sold off.

"Fuck!" Anna swore out loud, sitting down on the ground. "Bike's in pieces. Can't get out of here the fast way."

Elsa said nothing - instead, she just strode over to where the bike was.

"What are you doing?" Anna asked from down on the ground, trying hard not to look at Elsa's swaying backside as she walked past her.

"Bikes usually have a toolkit somewhere," she said as she was searching the entire bike, sifting through all the compartments and looking in all the nooks and crannies. "If I can find it, I can get to work on putting this back together," she added, just as she pulled out a pouch from somewhere on the bike. "Found it!"

Immediately, she got to work, grabbing pieces and pulling out tools as she inspected the bike. She moved with precision and purpose, affixing pieces and adjusting parts with a sense of familiarity and knowledge to her actions.

"You know how to fix up bikes?" Anna was a bit surprised.

"Yes," Elsa, taking a tool from the pouch. "I wasn't always a dancer. When I was younger, I was always assigned to fix up machines and the like."

"What changed all of that?" Anna asked. "You look like you know what you're doing. How come you were turned into a dancer?"

Elsa paused. "I grew up."

And Anna got the story.

Of course as a kid, she wouldn't be made into a performer. There were people who were depraved enough to do that, sure, but from what she gathered, Elsa never had any of those kinds of people as masters. The older she got, however, the more her looks would develop, and eventually she would grow up into the radiant figure that stood before her now.

She wondered what Elsa felt, suddenly thrust from fixing up machinery to being put on display like a slab of meat.

For the rest of the time Elsa spent fixing the bike, nothing was said between them. The slave girl simply took to fixing up the bike, while the bounty hunter took to keeping guard. It was an all but soundless affair - only the soft pangs and screws of wrenches were heard.

Anna kept watch, looking out for signs of any other enemies, monster, stray creatures, anything she could find so that she didn't have to look at the titillating sight of the scarf-wearing, bikini-clad blonde working on the rented speeder-bike, bending over and lying down…

 _Nope, nope,_ Anna thought, shaking her head. _She was a slave. You have no right slobbering over her like that._

"Anna?"

She looked back. Elsa was finished. The bike was back in one piece, and even seemed to be in better shape than it was before.

"Just like new," Elsa said. "I even took a look through the systems. There was something wrong with the repulsorlift. Some of the power converters were underpowered, so I went ahead and fixed that up. We should reach faster speeds now."

"Wow," Anna said, dumbfounded. "You know your stuff."

Anna stood up, limping towards the bike.

"Wait, are you sure you can ride the bike?" Elsa said, concerned. "You're not exactly in the best of shape.

"Yeah, I should be able to," she responded. When she neared the bike, she winced at the slight stinging sensation.

 _Oh no,_ Anna thought. It's going to wear off soon.

Elsa took notice. Before the redhead could get her hand on the handle, Elsa got on the driver's seat.

 _Oh dear,_ Anna thought.

She looked positively sexy. No effort was expended on her part, yet with her on the bike, hunched over the controls, one foot on the ground, and wearing something that could barely be considered clothing, Anna blushed with the intensity of a thousand suns. Elsa looked like the quintessential trashy biker girl she'd always see hanging around near cantinas back at Mos Eisley, but a great deal more appealing to her tastes.

"Uhh," Anna blurted dumbfoundedly. "Huh."

"What is it?"

"Nothing! Nothing." She was still speechless for a moment. "Do you know how to ride that?"

"Well," Elsa looked sheepish for a bit. "In theory, I do. I know how something like this works, but of course I was never allowed to ride anything."

"Good enough for me," Anna said. She was about to get on the back of the bike when Elsa stopped her.

When she looked at the blonde, Elsa instinctively withdrew her hand. "Sorry, but I don't think you should get on the back."

"Why?"

"You have a broken arm," Elsa explained. "You won't be able to hold on. It's better if you sit in front of me."

"Oh," Anna's blush intensified. "Umm, okay."

Ducking under Elsa's arms, she sat herself on the gap between the front of the girl and the controls of the bike.

"Alright, just tell me where to go," Elsa said.

"Just up ahead," Anna pointed up the valley. "When we're out I can just show you the general direction we need to go."

"Alright," Elsa revved up the speeder. "Let's hope I can drive this alright."

The bike lurched forward, catching both of them off-guard.

"Okay, let's try that again."

She turned successfully the second time around. Gliding out of the nook and out into the pathway, Elsa sped up, making a beeline for the exit of the canyon.

As the sounds of the speeder faded away, the valley, bathed in a light orange glow, became deathly silent once again.

* * *

Under the light of a million stars, the speeder hurdled through the vast empty landscape.

The wind flew by fast, blowing loud in Anna's ear and chilling down to the bone. With her hood down and her scarf with Elsa, she could feel the wind blowing in her face with full force. It was cold for her - she, who was dressed in a full, thick battle outfit, was shivering.

How much more for Elsa, who didn't have the luxury of clothing at the moment?

"Aren't you cold?" Anna asked.

"No, I'm not," Elsa responded. "I'm not bothered by the cold, remember?"

"Yes," Anna conceded. "But that was when we were near a fire. We're not anywhere near that anymore."

"I'm fine, Anna. Really," Elsa said, looking back at the aforementioned valley that was quickly shrinking behind them. By now, they were far enough that the valley had just become a glowing light in the distance, with a massive column of smoke the rose from it.

Elsa spotted something else, though. Just off to the side were three blinking lights, looking as if they were headed towards the place they had just come from.

"Anna, what are those?" She asked, pointing towards the lights.

The redhead looked back, spotting what Elsa had spotted. She squinted her eyes, until she came to a realization. "They're Imperial probe droids. They must've detected all the explosions."

"You can see them from this far away?" Elsa asked, astonished at her friend's vision.

Anna paused. "I… no, I can't," she realized. "I just… know."

As she moved back, she cringed. The anesthetic was starting to fade away, and she was worried it wouldn't last much longer. Elsa noticed, and she shifted her position on the seat.

"Hey, hey," Elsa said to her. "Please rest. Just point me to where we need to go and then you can sleep."

Anna weakly nodded, lifting her arm to point in a general direction. "Just… keep heading in that direction, across the Dune Sea…"

Elsa turned, adjusting her vector to head for where the redhead pointed at. "Do you want to rest?"

Anna said nothing, instead just leaning into Elsa's front, snuggling as best as she could for someone who was sitting upright.

Despite how cold it was, as the wind whipped around her, she found that Elsa was soft and warm, and she became comfortable enough to start feeling drowsy. She then rested her head on Elsa's shoulder, eyes slowly drooping until they fully closed.

Having gotten the affirmation she was looking for, she simply continued on, speeding up the bike in the hope that she would find wherever Anna needed to go to get help from.

Under the stars and the moonlit night, a lone speeder-bike rode across the desolate desert landscape.


End file.
